The Nielsen — Restaurant in Sydney

Yesterday we took advantage of the good weather to swim at Neilson Park. The Neilson was shut for lunch however The Kiosk was open. I noticed they had a sign up saying they were The Little Marionette however this name was not locatable using Google maps. The line up for The Kiosk was long all day long. There were 3 servers. They worked tirelessly & the food & drink they served was the average food you’d expect of a beach kiosk. Where this establishment totally dropped the ball was in how they could not follow appropriate Covid protocol. Everyone waited patiently in that long line until a woman with 2 children both aged around 10 years old, waltzed into the premises regardless of social distancing which everyone else in the line was observing. This woman walked up to the ice cream freezer & helped her children to several frozen treats & expected to be served ahead of everyone else in the line who had waited more than half an hour. I voiced my disdain saying that there were other parents with children in line who were patiently waiting to be served in order. My teenager was embarrassed but then another family with a child supported me & voiced their annoyance. A lot of muttering ensued in the line.Notwithstanding same, the Kiosk owners still served the woman. She didn’t have enough money & held up the line even more when she ran out to get more money. One of her children then proceeded to knock over the store specials blackboard. Spoiled, entitled people...whose children would have benefited by having to stand in line. However this was badly done staff of The Kiosk. It is your responsibility - not the patrons - to decide who gets served in order of wait time. This is also the time of Covid so you should be even more vigilant. All you seemed to care about was money. Shame on you. Everyone waited patiently following Covid guidelines. In future, step up & act...

We had breakfast here on Saturday. Three of us have been regulars at Nielsen Park for many years a few times a week. We had the smashed avo which was tasty but the kitchen missed one of the orders so it took in total about 30 mins for it to arrive meaning one of our party had to awkwardly watch others eat. There was not much of an apology and not even an offer of a complimentary coffee to make up for the mistake! Salt and pepper was brought to the table in sachets and a plastic container (weird) and the milk on the side of my long black arrived (after asking twice) in a takeaway cup w a plastic lid on it. The coffees and the mimosas were nice, not outstanding but nice. The smashed avo was tasty. The gluten free bread was an additional $5 (!!). Has Sydney still not moved past the need to charge extra for GF bread and alt milks when it’s such a common thing? For some strange reason the operators feel the need to create an ‘atmosphere’ with Cafe del Mar Ibiza music vibes which were loud. My table and the one next to us asked for it to be turned down outside, we’d rather hear the water and the actual real atmosphere that already exists at this gorgeous spot, and both times the music was turned down and then turned up again. The Ibiza vibes miss the actual vibes that is Nielsen Park - a place for families, the elderly community, and everyone else in between. The restaurant and the location is gorgeous enough without the need to over engineer a vibe. The food was nice, the service was poor which seems to be typical in Sydney these days, there were definitely some quirks that hopefully will be ironed out soon (like the salt and pepper situation) and the manufactured vibes are way too much in the morning, let the space and the location speak for itself! Hopefully the teething issues get worked through and the music is turned off because the food was nice and the...

Along with the reopening of the Nielsen Park beach after a very slow refurbishment, The Nielsen has also come back online. In the hands of Sydney Restaurant Group—who specialise in making the most of waterfront locations—it includes a variety of event spaces and a kiosk where you can walk straight in from the beach in your beach attire. Hot tip: while you can queue for takeaway on the right, if you turn left into the updated 1912 dining space, you get table service with an extended menu served on plates.

Pull up at a white picnic table and gaze through open stained-glass windows at the designer monumental concrete that took so long to pour (well there was some pesky asbestos that needed to be removed first) and the blue, blue harbour beyond it. It calls for cocktails, and the eager team here oblige quickly with a pretty namesake The Nielsen ($21) teaming vodka, Aperol and 1883 Peach with enough yuzu and lemon to strip the salt from your lips. The Mezcalita ($23) does the same job with a smoky kiss of Del Maguey and lime.

The menu isn’t going for artistry, just food you want to eat by the beach. The fish burger ($26) arrives with a protruding crisp battered fillet of white-fleshed fish, tangy tartare, pickles and credible chips. Octopus ($28) is a pretty plate of tender tentacles tangled with perfectly cooked spuds, green olives, cherry tomatoes and salsa verde. It’s just the ticket to fill you up on the bounty of the sea without so much heaviness you can’t quickly return...